In manufacturing and/or maintenance and repair environments, it is often necessary to lift heavy, oddly shaped, non-centered equipment into a confined space and then to rotate and position such equipment within the confined space. Confined spaces pose a variety of physical challenges including limited space within the confined space and restricted access to the confined space.
For example, modern aircraft are commonly designed to have one or more electronics bays or other compartments configured within the aircraft fuselage's structural beams below the flight deck. Access to aircraft electronics bays and other compartments is often provided through a relatively small opening in the bottom of the fuselage (i.e., at the bottom of the electronics bay) where an access door is installed. Electronics and other equipment are installed into aircraft electronics bays by lifting the equipment from the floor below the aircraft, up through the opening in the bottom of the fuselage, and then turning and positioning the equipment in the electronics bay. Currently, depending on the size, weight and shape of the equipment, this requires one or more people on the floor outside the fuselage to lift the equipment through the relatively small opening to one or more people inside the electronics bay. Similar lifting and turning procedures and personnel are used for removing equipment from the electronics bay for maintenance and/or repair, and then re-installing the equipment. Throughout these processes, care must be taken not to damage the equipment or the aircraft.
It is therefore desirable to improve the foregoing processes with hoisting capabilities that will reduce the physical challenges associated with confined spaces, provide more precision in handling equipment to be installed in confined spaces, and to provide ergonomic benefits and other manufacturing efficiencies. Although hoists are used generally in various construction and maintenance applications, hoists typically have a motor suspended on an arm. This configuration would be difficult to use in confined spaces of an aircraft because of the size of aircraft compartments, such as electronics bays, and structural elements within the compartments. Other known hoists have the cable and hook directly suspended from the motor. This configuration may be difficult to position in an aircraft compartment and would not allow components to be moved to the proper position within the compartment.